Sunday, October 14 2012 at 3:00 PM

Tickets

$25 general, $15 students/seniors

Autumn Chrysanthemums II brings the return of Yoko Reikano Kimura, a virtuoso performer of the the traditional Japanese instruments koto, shamisen and an outstanding singer of the classical, Edo period repertoire. This performance will feature the classic piece NASUNO, written in 1807 by Yamada Kengyo; the ghost story of a deadly stone that was once a female fox-devil. Kimura's mastery of the traditional instruments extends to contemporary music as well and compositions by Japanese composer Kinea Seiho and Minoru Miki, and American composer Marty Regan will be played. Kimura will be accompanied by her husband Hikaru Tamaik (cello), Kaoru Watanabe (fue) and James Nyoraku Schlefer (shakuhachi.)

About the performersYoko Reikano Kimura (Koto, Shamisen, Voice) performs classical Japanese music in the Yamada school style as well as contemporary music for Japanese instruments. She has concertized around the world and is based in both the US and Japan. Kimura graduated from the Tokyo University of the Arts and Music, where she was awarded the top prize for her graduation recital. She continued her studies at the NHK School for Young Professionals and the Institute of Contemporary Music for Traditional Japanese Instruments. Also the Agency of Culture Affairs elected her as the internship trainee. Kimura received her stage name "Reikano" from Hiroko Nakanoshima VI. Her main teachers include Kono Kameyama for Yamada school koto music, Akiko Nishigata for contemporary Japanese shamisen music and Senko Yamabiko who is a living national treasure for Kato-bushi shamisen. She received her stage name "Reiko Yamabiko" as a Kato-bushi shamisen performer. She has appeared in wide variety venues in Japan including the National Theatre, National Noh Theatre, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Suntory Hall and any other important cultural properties. For the Traditional Music Digital Library, she recorded various classical shamisen works. Her performances are regularly featured in the NHK-FM radio in Japan.

An enthusiastic supporter of contemporary music, Kimura has premiered new works at the Japan Society for Contemporary Music. In 2000 she debuted at Toppan Hall (Tokyo) as the first Japanese -Western music duo in the history of the competition. Currently she concertizes in the US and Japan with her husband, Hikaru Tamaki, the principal cellist of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2011 the duo was awarded the Janet Latz Professional Fellowship in recognition of their cross-cultural musical activities. She has worked with notable composers and artists such as Heiner Goebbels, Ikuro Fujiwara, the Wien Soristen Trio, Kenny Endo, Koshino Junko and many others. In 2012-13 she will be collaborating with the string quartets such as the Arianna String Quartet and the Euclid Quartet.

Hikaru Tamaki (cello) is currently the principal cellist of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. He concertizes regularly as a soloist and a chamber musician. Before joining the Philharmonic, he was an associate principal cellist of the Chicago Civic Orchestra and performed under the baton of Daniel Barenboim at Carnegie Hall. As part of his duties with the Philharmonic, he performs regularly with the other principal string players in the Freimann String Quartet.

Born in Kyoto, Japan in 1975, he studied with Noboru Kamimura and Peter Seidenberg. Studies in the United States began in 1994 at the Eastman School of Music, where he was named a George Eastman Scholar, and continued at Rice University and Northwestern University. He was awarded a bachelor of arts degree from Rice and a master of music degree from Northwestern University, where his teachers were Paul Katz and Hans Jorgen Jensen. Tamaki was a prizewinner in the prestigious All Japan Viva Hall Cello Competition in 2000. Other awards include first Prize at the Society of American Musicians Young Artists Competition and the Bach Festival Young Artists Competition in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

During visits to Japan each year, he gives solo performances, lecture concerts and chamber concerts. In 2009, he began collaborations with his wife, Yoko Reikano Kimura (koto/shamisen) and they have given concerts and workshops at various cities in Japan and the US. In 2011, they were awarded the Janet Latz Professional Development Fellowship in recognition of their duo activities. Solo performances with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic have included the Dvorak Cello Concerto, Don Quixote and most recently the Haydn Cello Concerto. In 2008 he released his first solo album, which includes the works of J.S. Bach and Toshiro Mayuzumi.

Kaoru Watanabe is a New York based practitioner of various Japanese traverse bamboo fue or flutes, the taiko drum as well as the Western flute. His music can be best described as an ever shifting blend of the folk and classical traditions of Japan with contemporary improvisational and experimental music. He has performed with such artists as jazz pianist Jason Moran and Kabuki actor Bando Tamasaburo, and was a member and artistic director of Japanese taiko ensemble Kodo.

Kaoru was born in St. Louis, MO to symphony musician parents, Ayako and Haruka Watanabe. In 1997, after graduating from the Manhattan School of Music with a BFA in jazz flute and saxophone performance, Kaoru moved to Sado Island, Japan in order to join the iconic and hugely influential taiko group Kodo. Kaoru was selected to join the company after a two year apprenticeship, which included a daily regiment of six mile runs and five to eight hours of practice in taiko, folk dance and song, various fue, tea ceremony, Noh and Kyogen theater, farming and woodworking. With Kodo, Kaoru toured in Japan, North America and Europe, performing in such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Barbican and Kabukiza. From 2005 to 2007, Kaoru served as one of Kodo's artistic directors, focussing on their world music festival Earth Celebration which featured such luminaries as Zakir Hussain, Giovanni Hildago, Yamashita Yosuke and Tamango. Kaoru's compositions can be heard on Kodo albums Mondo Head, Prism Rhythm and One Earth Tour Special on Sony Records.

In late 2006, Kaoru left Kodo and returned to NY to teach and continue performing in a diverse array of musical and artistic settings, whether in collaboration with Alicia Hall Moran at the Whitney Museum, performing fue with singer Imani Uzuri and dancer Camille Brown at New York's Summerstage, or creating a soundscape for an installation by ceramic and video artist Simone Leigh. Recent projects have taken him across the globe to such places as Mongolia, French Guiana, Argentina and the Caribbean and have received support from the Japan Foundation and Asian Cultural Council. As an educator, Kaoru teaches workshops and masterclasses internationally, courses at Princeton and Wesleyan University and regular classes at his own studio, the Kaoru Watanabe Taiko Center in Brooklyn. Kaoru's fue are provided by master flute maker Ranjo.

"James Nyoraku Schlefer occupies a special place in [New York City's] cultural life, composing and performing music that bridges Western and Japanese styles." The New Yorker Schlefer received the Dai-Shi-Han (Grand Master) certificate in 2001, one of only a handful of non-Japanese to receive this high level award. In 2008, he received his second Shi-Han certificate from Mujuan Dojo, in Kyoto. In Japan, Schlefer has worked with Reibo Aoki, Katsuya Yokoyama, Yoshio Kurahashi, Yoshinobu Taniguchi, and Kifu Mitsuhashi. His first teacher was Ronnie Nyogetsu Seldin. He holds a Master's degree in Western flute and musicology from Queens College and currently teaches shakuhachi class at Columbia University and music history courses at the City University of New York. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Tanglewood, BAM, the Metropolitan Museum, at colleges and universities throughout the US and has toured in Japan, Indonesia, Brazil and counties in Europe. Schlefer has four solo recordings, Wind Heart (which travelled 120,000,000 miles aboard the Space Station MIR) Solstice Spirit (1998), Flare Up (2002), and In The Moment (2008). His music has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered. Schlefer's latest recording Spring Sounds, Spring Seas was released in June 2012 and features his original music for shakuhachi and orchestra.